Turtles, Toads, and Frogs!

It is no secret that my kids love animals, especially my daughter.  We have had numerous millipedes, worms, turtles, and even a salamander come to our house for short visits.   Over the summer it seemed she was catching toads in our flower bed EVERY day.

When I found the book Turtles, Toads and Frogs Junior Guide at the used book store, I just had to bring it home for us to explore!

The book is pretty detailed; I can definitely see it for a slightly older crowd (7-8 year olds), but it didn’t keep my preschoolers from wanting me to ready every little bit of it.  Several times.

Then we took it on one of our walks to the pond and tried to identify some of the smaller frogs that hop along the bank. We found leopard frogs and bull frogs.   We talked about how frogs differ from toads (for one thing, frogs tend to live near water and toads, like those in our flower bed, do not).

Then we played with our own miniature frog and turtle pond small world.

I cut small lily pads out of craft foam for our little frog figures to float on.  

We added a variety of turtles, some sponges, and a little beach blanket to our pond scene as well.

They had a blast floating their frogs around, walking the turtle up to the beach, and using the sponges to make it “rain.” 

Looking for other turtle ideas?  Check out our simple paper plate turtle puppets we made!